bread crumb.....s

I was listening to the Sport's Reporters this week on my way home from work and they were talking about "Franken-Food." Frankenstein ... food ... get it? Crazy food combos made at State Fair's and Father's left to make dinner when Mom is away.

After the third caller ended their description of their memorable Franken-Food experience with, "Wrapped in bacon," the host begins to gush over his love for bacon. He brilliantly refered to bacon as: "Meat candy."

I've been laughing quietly to myself every time I think of it.

Meat candy.

Amazing.

I've been messing around with this blog thing for a number of years, now: "Ramblin' Man", "Ramblin' Guy", "CONTRAST" and another blog on Tumblr called "bread crumbs.....s". The Ramblin's were simply that ... ramblings. Similar to this post, you could say. It was a collection of favorite rips from the web and even some personal writing.

A few months ago, I was inspired to give it some purpose, so I overhauled it and named it, "CONTRAST." The idea was to have a place to put some of my personal writing along with (eventually mostly) postings focused on the Christian walk, our current culture and how it all relates. Turn up the "contrast" on our lives, so we live a life that is fundamentally different from the world. I needed a place to collect my favorite funnies and musings from the web, so I created a "pond" to collect these bites and pieces from the web. I named it, "bread crumbs.....s".

I was kicking around an idea for a posting this past week, and felt unsatisfied with how I had things arranged. The way I would Tweet my updates and share the links on Facebook, I felt like I was acting like some sort of big shot. Like I had some sort of mass following. Funny. So, if I don't have a mass following, and I stop acting like I have one, then what would the point of having a blog be? I've concluded: a place for me to write about my life. A place for my ideas, what I've learned, what I'm up to.

Read if you like, feel free to follow, but now this path of bread crumbs will simply be bits and pieces from the slices of my life. So, as I merge all this together, it is what is. Just another crumby blog.

Keys. They can tell a story. They can be a reflection of their keeper. What car do they unlock? Which home does it open? Is that key for your personal office at work? Do you have a boat key? A storage unit key? What about a key for a vacation house, a second car or maybe a third?

Growing up, my family cared for a Down Syndrome man. He liked keys. He had a key ring with a number of keys that went to … nothing. Why did he keep a ring of useless keys in his pocket? The keys made him feel important. It was a false sense of importance, but enough sense that was enough to satisfy the need of being needed. He saw the power of a key. Think of the last time you waited for someone to unlock a door. All eyes are on the key holder. All wait for the keeper to wield the only thing that will ignite movement. My little boy has a set of “play” keys. He slings them with his play cell phone. He mimics his father, keeper of the keys.

We sold our car a few weeks ago. One more step toward Italy, one more step away from the life we live, now. As the keeper of the keys, I double checked the keys in my pocket. It felt weird. I was two bulky keys short. I thought about the changes and transitions on the trek ahead. I thought about each of my keys. The minivan key will be the last to go before we fly overseas. The front door house key, the front door dead bolt key and back door keys will come off my key ring when we sell the house. At the end of October, my studio key, control room key, tape room key, bank depository key and master office key will be turned over to my employer on my last day. When we buy our plane tickets, I’ll turn in the church door key and sound room key. When I land in Italy, my key ring will be … empty.

Perhaps the keys we keep really don't belong to us in the first place ...